the president did talk about higher tax rates, but mostly it was as a way to talk about mitt romney's taxes himself. and we didn't talk about much in this except for mitt romney's character and his bank account and those things. it was a sort of the seinfeld election, the election about nothing. and e president won anyway. he returned to washington, and what we have now is an atmosphere here where people can't think about big stuff, they can't even conceive of the idea of doing big things. gregg: right. >> and it shouldn't be surprising to us now that as we get down to the end and we get to the cliff itself that what everybody's talking about is shrinking the field and just doing something desperate just to patch to get by into the new year. gregg: speaking of small and cynical, let me carry that forward -- [laughter] with the remarks of senator john barrasso who yesterday on fox news sunday said he thinks the president is eager to go over the cliff because he senses victory. the president senses victory at the bottom of the cliff. now, that's a pretty cynical point of view, but i won